The five research centers in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at UMBC present this panel discussion to kick off the 2022-23 CAHSS Colloquium series, designed to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations among faculty, staff, and students to build intellectual community within and beyond individual research interests and curricula offerings. The topic for 2022-23 is resilience. Resilience is the ability of an entity, a person, an institution, a technology, a community, a natural environment, to anticipate, respond to, and recover from adverse conditions. The concept of resilience generally has a positive connotation, but it has also been criticized for placing on individuals and communities the burden to adapt to adverse and potentially unjust contexts. Adapting to adverse conditions may not necessarily improve them, so what is the relationship between resilience, resistance and social change? This panel will explore resilience from a variety of different perspectives. An open gallery and reception will follow the discussion.

This event is co-hosted by the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC), the Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA), the Center for Social Science Scholarship (CS3), the Dresher Center for the Humanities, and the Imaging Research Center (IRC) and is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Ann Brodsky - facilitator
Anne Brodsky is Professor and Chair of Psychology. Her work focuses on resilience, psychological sense of community, immigration and displacement, and the role of communities in creating and resisting societal risks and oppressions, including violence, war, poverty, sexism, and racism.

Panelists:

Earl Brooks
Earl H. Brooks is an Assistant Professor of English, and his research interests include music, African-American rhetorical traditions, and composition. His forthcoming book, Resonance of Resistance, explores the rhetoric of Black music through the work of Scott Joplin, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Mary Lou Williams, and Mahalia Jackson.
 
Marcela Mellinger
Marcela Sarmiento Mellinger is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work where she teaches policy courses as well as an intimate partner violence elective. Her research interests include advocacy, intimate partner violence, and social work education.
 
Oletha DeVane
Oletha DeVane is an accomplished multidisciplinary artist who explores diverse political, social identities and cultural interpretations. Her work has been in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the U.S. and in the United Arab Emirates and is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Born in Baltimore, DeVane received a B.F.A. from Maryland Institute College of Art and M.F.A. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her solo exhibition Oletha Devane: Spectrum of Light and Spirit will be on view in the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture September 22 - December 17, 2022.

Dominic Nell
Dominic Nell is a photographer, activist, and farmer-chef focused on healing communities through various mediums. Nell is the founder of CityWeeds, a trauma-informed food business that strives to eliminate food deserts and improve the health, wellness, and independence of Baltimore City residents through the growing and selling of microgreens and cold-pressed juices. Nell's vision for CityWeeds is to feed and heal the community by growing food out of vacant lots.

Registration is required.

UMBC is committed to making its events accessible to everyone. Please send an email to abbotts@umbc.edu to request any specific accommodations. Two weeks' notice is appreciated, but we will do our best to accommodate needs at any point.

This event will be recorded and available on CADVC's YouTube channel and CS3's YouTube channel.

The (Virtual) Gubernatorial Debate Watch (Wednesday, October 12, 7 - 8 p.m., Discord) is an opportunity for UMBC community members to share space, make connections, offer reactions and insights, and learn more about Election 2022 while watching the Maryland gubernatorial debate together. Click here for more information and a link to RSVP.

Dinner with Friends (Thursday, October 20, 5 - 7 p.m., Webex) will bring UMBC community members together to share stories and learn about each other's experiences with important issues affecting people at UMBC: interfaith engagement and collaboration; mental health; equity and justice; and Election 2022. Click here for more information and a link to RSVP.

The October Civic Courage Journaling Project Gathering (Friday, October 21, 12:15 - 1:45 p.m., Webex) will create space for UMBC community members to have a conversation about personal experiences that have important, often hidden civic dimensions. Click here for more information and a link to RSVP.

The Maryland Board of Elections has placed an official ballot dropoff box in the lobby of The Commons, meaning that Maryland voters can now cast their votes on campus. You will need to be registered and request a mail-in ballot, which you can place in the box after you have completed it. Thanks to our partners in Campus Life and the Division of Information Technology for making this placement possible, and to SGA, GSA, RSA, the President's Office, and other campus leaders who joined us in working with the Board of Elections to get it done.

As of this posting, UMBC is #6 in the United States in the number of pledges to vote made by students through ALL IN to Vote's Pledge to Vote competition. Faculty, staff, and students can take the pledge; student pledges count toward UMBC's total on the national leaderboard 

The Center for Democracy and Civic Life helps people develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to create healthy communities and tackle challenges together. Our work builds from the premise that civic life encompasses everyday settings and relationships through which people can generate the power to shape their world. The ideas behind our work are reflected in the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement (CLDE) Theory of Change, which members of the Center's staff developed in collaboration with the leaders of national higher education networks.